With her long brown mane and wide eyes, Kozaily bears some resemblance to Bush, but she hadn’t discovered the reclusive British legend’s music until 2017, when someone pointed out their similarities. “Boss Bush” Kozaily runs a music school in San Diego and performs original music as Natula. The members-founder Natasha Kozaily, Heather Nation, Melanie Medina, Marie Haddad, Leah Bowden, Batya MacAdam-Somer, Nancy Elizabeth Ross, and Lexi Pulido-all have Bush nicknames (Boss Bush, Sugar Bush, Hella Bush, etc.) like the Ramones, making it even more familial. Watching this group of women onstage feels utopian, with each performer getting her turn to shine on lead vocals, the crowd chanting along to most of the words.

The performers and crowd feel enmeshed-everyone, onstage and off, is coming at it from the angle of fandom. Hamilton it’s not, but the musical-theater energy and hammy choreography are highly endearing.

Bush’s lyrics about Harry Houdini, bank robbery, and mad scientists are acted out, replete with props and costume changes. Bush’s unique dance moves and expressive singing inspire Baby Bushka’s choreographed dance moves. The complex arrangements of Bush’s music require an eight-piece band, with three-to-five-part harmonies. ( Cloudbusting, another band of Bush cover artists, is based in the U.K.) (The members prefer “experience” to “tribute band.”) Baby Bushka-the name comes from Bush’s 1980 song “ Babooshka”-benefits partly from the fact that Bush has been largely absent from the music scene since her heyday, touring only once, in 1979, and never in the States. Formed in 2017, Baby Bushka may be America’s only Kate Bush experience. This essay was adapted from the Alta newsletter, delivered every Thursday.Īs TikTok teens and Top 40 stations play catch-up to Bush’s brand of soaring, sensual, synth-heavy music, one group of Californians has been primed for the Bush renaissance. charts 37 years after its initial release, breaking records and introducing a new generation to the sui generis singer-songwriter’s eclectic body of work. In June, the opening track from Bush’s landmark album Hounds of Love reached the top of the U.K. One of the biggest pop culture surprises of the summer has been the rise of Kate Bush’s “ Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God),” a nearly four-decade-old song that had a massive chart resurgence when it was featured in season 4 of Stranger Things.

Hounds of love cover